This invention relates to an apparatus which, on occurrence of an event due to an emergency during travel in a car, automatically retrieves the useful information useful for eliminating the event to present the information to a driver.
Nowadays, there is established, as a commercial service, a service of installing an information furnishing apparatus, constructed e.g., as a computer terminal, in a car to furnish a variety of information to a driver.
First, there is a service employing a broadcast infrastructure. For example, VICS and teletext of FM Tokyo are furnishing the traffic information to car drivers. The services exploiting the broadcast infrastructure airs the same broadcast program in unison without regard to the circumstances of individual cars.
Second, there are numerous services exploiting the communication infrastructure, such as radio telephone. Examples of these services include Mone by Toyota and related its firms (abridged as xe2x80x9cet alxe2x80x9d hereinafter), Compass Link by Nissan et al., Inter-Navi by Honda Giken et al., ITGS by Mercedes Benz et al., and Mobile Link by many car navigation producing firms, and the like. In these services, exploiting the communication infrastructure, contents conforming to requests by individual drivers are sent to meet these requests. These may be classified as one sort of personal computer communication services for car drivers.
Third, there is known a system of automatically transmitting a communication notifying the occurrence of an accident and asking for rescue. Typical of such a system is the May-Day system which, on occurrence of an accident, automatically transmits a radio telephone call to ask a rescue center for rescue. An apparatus for coping with a car accident, as an analogous technique, is disclosed in JP Patent Kokai JP-A-10-44894. The OnStar, which the GM of USA offers as the commercial service, provides for communication between the car and the center by a portable telephone. Specifically, with this service, a control equipment of a car can be controlled from the center in case of occurrence of accidents or handle lock.
There is much to be desired in the art, and particular problems have been encountered during the course of the investigations toward the present invention.
During car driving, there is a possibility that, in addition to crash accidents, a variety of problems, such as gas depletion, engine overheating, wear caused to the clutch and so forth. The commercial system of automatically transmitting a request for rescue in case a automotive vehicle has been disabled to be driven due to gas depletion or overheating is a function partially made into commercial service by the aforementioned OnStar. However, this service is predicted to be very costly.
As for the OnStar, GM loads it on certain high-grade automotive vehicles, such as Cadillac. Moreover, since OnStar is a toll service that costs tens of dollars per month regardless of whether or not the service is actually used. So, this service is not to be used freely by users at large. Of course, a driver would be willing to pay the high cost as a recompense for the service offered if the automotive vehicle he or she is driving is completely disabled to be driven. However, if the state of the automotive vehicle is no more than a pseudo-alarm state indicating a possible, not impending, trouble or a trouble likely to occur at most, no one would be willing to use the expensive automatic rescue service. There lacks up to now an inexpensive information service for an individual user under such pseudo-alarm state.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for furnishing the information useful to overcome an emergency situation that has occurred in a travelling automotive vehicle, such as overheating.
First Aspect
The information purveying apparatus for coping with an emergency during driving a car, according to the first aspect of the present invention, accomplishes the above object using an communication infrastructure. The information purveying apparatus comprises:
a common equipment provided on an operation center and an automotive vehicle side equipment provided on an automotive vehicle one to another, in which the automotive vehicle side equipment is capable of performing bidirectional communication with the operating center (common equipment). The common equipment includes a service information storage unit storing a plurality of contents information comprehending at least the appellation of service purveyors, a plurality of type names indicating types of the services purveyed by the service purveyors, and a plurality of service purveyors information comprehending the business time and business places of the service purveyors. The information purveying apparatus further comprises an information retrieval unit retrieving, on reception from the automotive vehicle an information inquiry request at least specifying the type name indicating the type of the service useful in overcoming the emergency situation that has occurred in the automotive vehicle and the current position of the automotive vehicle, the optimum service purveyor information useful to overcome the emergency situation that has occurred, from the service information storage unit, taking into account the type name specified, current position and the current time, and for transmitting at least the contents information to the automotive vehicle as a requestor. The automotive vehicle side equipment includes a position detection unit detecting the current position of the automotive vehicle, an emergency situation decision unit determining, on occurrence of an emergency situation, the type name indicating the sort of the service useful in overcoming the emergency situation that has occurred, and an information acquisition unit transmitting an information inquiry request at least specifying the type name determined by the emergency situation decision unit and the current position of the automotive vehicle as detected by the position detection unit to the information retrieval unit of the operating center, and outputting the information transmitted as a response from the information retrieval unit at an output device.
The information retrieval unit sets, as an optimum service purveyor information, a service purveyor information, among the plurality of service purveyors information stored in the service information storage unit, which has the same type name as the type name specified by the information inquiry, such that the vehicle can be reached within the business time judging from the current time, and the place of business of which is closer to the current car position as a source of inquiry. The current time, as required for the processing in the information retrieval unit, may be acquired by the automotive vehicle side device or on the common equipment. In the former case, the automotive vehicle side equipment includes a time detection unit detecting the current time, and the information acquisition unit comprehends the current time as detected by the time detection unit in the information inquiry request. In the latter case, the common equipment includes a time detection unit detecting the current time, and the information retrieval unit acquires the current time of a time point of reception of the information inquiry request from the time detection unit.
The common equipment includes a time detection unit detecting the current time and the automotive vehicle side device includes an automotive vehicle control device generating a control signal for coping with an unusual occurrence in the automotive vehicle and a correlation table stating the correlation between the control signal generated by the automotive vehicle control device and the type name specifying the type of the service useful in overcoming the unusual occurrence, the emergency situation decision unit, on occurrence of the control signal from the automotive vehicle control device, acquiring the type name corresponding to the generated control signal from the correlation table.
At least a portion of the service purveyor information stored in the service information storage unit is the CM information aired by data broadcast.
Second Aspect
The information purveying apparatus for coping with an emergency during driving an automotive vehicle, according to the second aspect of the present invention; accomplishes the above object using a broadcasting infrastructure, and is not in need of a common equipment of the operating center required in the first aspect. Specifically, the information purveying apparatus for coping with an emergency during driving an automotive vehicle, according to the second aspect, is equipped on an automotive vehicle carrying a data broadcast equipment. The information purveying apparatus is comprised of:
(a) an extraction unit extracting, from the information received by the data broadcast receiver, the service purveyors information including at least contents information having at least names of the service purveyors, type names indicating the sort of the services furnished by the service purveyors, and information on the business time and the places of business of the service purveyors,
(b) a service information storage unit storing a plurality of the service purveyors information,
(c) a position detection unit for detecting the current position of an automotive vehicle,
(d) a time detection unit detecting the current time,
(e) an emergency situation decision unit deciding on occurrence of an emergency situation the type name indicating the type of the service useful in overcoming the emergency situation that has occurred, and
(f) an information registration acquisition unit, being fed with the service purveyor information extracted by the extraction unit, the current position detected by the position detection unit, the current time detected by the time detection unit and the type name determined by the emergency situation decision unit, said information registration acquisition unit performing the processing of registering the service purveyor information in the service information storage unit and processing for retrieving from the service information storage unit an optimum service purveyor information helpful to overcome the emergency situation that has occurred to output at least the content information from an output device.
The information registration acquisition unit may be any one of xe2x80x9cSystem 1xe2x80x9d of registering the service purveyor information extracted by the extraction unit, without sorting, in the service information storage unit, and sorting an optimum one of the information at the time of the information acquisition, xe2x80x9cSystem 2xe2x80x9d of previously sorting and registering the service purveyor information having the same type name so that an optimum one of the service purveyor information will be registered, and xe2x80x9cSystem 3xe2x80x9d of sorting the service purveyor information having the same type name to a certain extent and sorting an optimum one of the information at the time of acquisition of the information.
The information registration acquisition unit includes registering unit registering the service purveyor information newly extracted by the extraction unit in the service information storage unit, and an information acquisition unit retrieving from the service information storage unit the optimum service purveyor information useful in overcoming the emergency situation that has occurred, based on the type name determined by the emergency situation decision unit, the current time as detected by the time detection unit and the current automotive vehicle position as detected by the position detection unit. The information acquisition unit sets the service purveyors information, among the service purveyors information stored in the service information storage unit, which has the same type name as the type name determined by the emergency situation decision unit, such that the service is accessible or available within the business time judging from the current time and the place of business of which is closer to the current position of the automotive vehicle, as the optimum service purveyor information.
In the case of System 2, the information registration acquisition unit includes registering means for operating the registration so that, if a number exceeding N of the service purveyors information having the same type name as that of the service purveyor information newly extracted by the extracting unit is stored in the service information storage unit, only more desirable upper N service purveyor information will be registered in the service information storage unit, based on the current time as detected by the time detection unit and on the current automotive vehicle position is detected by the position detection unit and information acquisition unit retrieving from the service information storage unit the optimum service purveyor information useful in overcoming the emergency situation that has occurred, based on the type name as determined by the emergency situation decision unit, the current time as detected by the time detection unit and on the current automotive vehicle position as detected by the position detection unit. The registering means sets the service purveyor information, such that the service is accessible or available within the business time judging from the current time and the place of business of which is closer to the current position of the automotive vehicle, as the more desirable service purveyor information.
In the case of System 3, the information registration acquisition unit includes registering means for operating the registration so that, if a number exceeding of the service purveyors information having the same type name as that of the service Purveyors information newly extracted by the extracting unit is stored in the service information storage unit, only more desirable upper N service Purveyors information will be registered in the service information storage unit, based on the current time as detected by the time detection unit and on the current automotive vehicle position as detected by the position detection unit, and information acquisition unit retrieving from the service information storage unit the optimum service purveyor information useful in overcoming the emergency situation that has occurred, based on the type name as determined by the emergency situation decision unit, the current time as detected by the time detect ion unit and on the current automotive vehicle position as detected by the position detection unit. The information acquisition unit sets the service purveyor information which has the same type name as the type name as determined by the emergency situation decision unit, such that the service is accessible or available within the business time judging from the current time, and the place of business of which is closer to the current position of the automotive vehicle, as the optimum service purveyor information. On the other hand, the registering means sets the service purveyor information, such that the service is accessible or available within the business time judging from the current time and the place of business of which is closest to the current position of the automotive vehicle, as the optimum service purveyor information, whilst the information acquisition unit sets the service purveyor information, among the plurality of service purveyors information stored in the service information storage unit, which has the same type name as the type name determined by the service information storage unit, such that the service is accessible or available within the business time and the place of business of which lies closer to the current position of the automotive vehicle, as the optimum service purveyor information.
In the second aspect of the present invention, there are provided an automotive vehicle control device for generating a control signal for coping with the unusual occurrence in the automotive vehicle and a correlation table stating the correlation between the control signal generated in the automotive vehicle control device and the type name specifying the sort of the service useful in overcoming the unusual occurrence. When the control signal is generated by the automotive vehicle control device, the emergency situation decision unit acquires the type name associated with the control signal from the correlation table. Since a control device for coping with the unusual occurrence, such as gas depletion, oil change, clutch wear or overheating, is usually built into the automotive vehicle, the automotive vehicle control device is able to exploit such pre-existing control devices.
The service purveyor information, extracted from the information received by the data broadcast receiver, may be the CM information as in the first aspect. However, the service purveyor information is not necessarily be limited to the CM information.